AUSTRALIA. NGUYEN CLEMENCY 'A POLITICAL PROBLEM', MINISTER

Australians have to respect Singapore's decision to execute Van Tuong Nguyen, a Melbourne man convicted of heroin trafficking, federal Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said.
Nguyen, 25, was due to hang within weeks after he was caught with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage at Singapore's Changi airport in 2002. Hockey said Singapore's decision to execute the former salesman presented a "very, very difficult issue".
But granting Nguyen clemency would pose domestic political problems for the Singaporean government, he said.
"Only a few weeks ago they executed a father of two children, a Singaporean, for a similar offence," Hockey said.
"It might seem a bit rich, locally, to be prepared to execute your own citizens but you're not prepared to execute foreign citizens who are heroin traffickers."